Maria Shagina

Maria was born in Kamchatka, by the cold ocean, but since then has lived in many different places.  She fell in love with diving in 2007 during her very first trip to Egypt. After trying a DSD, she kept dreaming about becoming a diver until years later she  finally completed her PADI OWD certification.

Maria did a lot of training in the Red Sea, but also in the cold waters of the Black Sea and some ice diving in lakes and quarries. Due to the difficult diving conditions she jumped almost straight into technical diving, and it started to take over her life. She joined a team of technical divers in the Black Sea where she took several courses and later trained in Egypt to become an IANTD instructor.

One day in 2013, she traveled to Cozumel for reef diving and the shop there offered her a cavern tour to Calavera. Right after they finished their dive, she knew that she needed to explore what lays there, beyond the cavern limit. Shortly after that vacation Maria moved to Mexico for cave diving, and, eventually, became an IANTD cavern and sidemount instructor and  worked full time as a guide for 5 years.

Maria took a break from diving  in 2019 and spent a couple of years in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic Sea, and exploring shipwrecks in the Red Sea. She also did a lot of traveling and experienced life outside of caves.

At some point she realized that even though the world has a lot to offer, nothing could ever be compared with doing what you love, for her it is cave diving. Maria came back to Mexico to continue her cave and instructor journey with ProTec.

In 2023 she became PSAI OWSM and ABC instructor and continues her instructor development to be a Full Cave instructor. 

Diver Levels:

• IANTD: Trimix, Full cave

• TDI: Stage cave

• PADI: Divemaster, EFR